As of today, five members of the House Democratic Caucus have called on Speaker Madigan to resign immediately. This is in addition to all 44 House Republicans, myself included. In fact, we filed legislation last Thursday to remove Mike Madigan from the office of Speaker by a vote of the Illinois House of Representatives (HR 885). Since Speaker Madigan announced late last week that he has no intention of stepping down, I am asking Governor Pritzker to call an immediate special session so that we can vote to remove Speaker Madigan ourselves on a bipartisan basis, and to follow up on that with passing ethics reform measures along the lines of those we’re already introduced to put a stop to the endless culture of corruption coming out of Springfield. Just in the past year Representative Luis Arroyo and Senator Martin Sandoval have been forced to resign in disgrace for violating the public trust. Every single day that we allow a Speaker of the House implicated in a criminal bribery scheme to remain in office further undermines public confidence in state government and casts a shadow upon everything the legislature does. It is time for Speaker Madigan to go.
– State Representative Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford)